Iraqi Government Allows Doctors to Carry Guns for Protection

[peyton]

Our nations finest works to make Iraq safe, and secure. Currently, families are allowed a firearm in the home for protection and now another step. I posted this because in all my time on THR I wondered how people would feel if we did not have our 2nd Admendment rights ,and had to rely on the government to give us our rights. These steps in Iraq are a postive move.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,429841,00.html

Iraqi Government Allows Doctors to Carry Guns for Protection
Monday, September 29, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iraq's government is allowing doctors to carry guns to protect themselves from violence that has often targeted them since the 2003 war.

Authorities say each physician will be allowed to carry one weapon. The government's decision was announced Monday in a statement.

About 8,000 physicians have abandoned jobs at government health centers in the past five years. Most have sought refuge abroad, while a few hundred have left for the relative safety of Iraq's Kurdish region.

Their departure has further crippled a health care system plagued by corruption, mismanagement and a lack of equipment and drugs.

Since 2003, at least 620 Iraqi medical professionals, including 134 doctors, have been killed and many more threatened.

 

[bobbarker]

For what it's worth, all Iraqi men are allowed to carry weapons. Doesn't matter what kind of criminal background they may have. Even people who were in Republican Guard or Fedayeen are allowed. They are only allowed One Rifle(Typically an Ak-47) and 1 Magazine. In some provinces, they are allowed to have an RPG(Not sure about the number of rounds they are allowed, or if there is a cap.) They are not allowed to have handguns at all. Kind of ironic, but, there it is.

 

[Zoogster]

Interesting concept: You patch up the opposition and put him back in the field against us and we will kill you.

Civil war can impact many parts of a society.
Everyone needs to be able to defend themselves, because everyone can in some way impact the odds for one side or another, even just by doing thier job. That makes them somebody's enemy.

 

[Loosedhorse]

all Iraqi men are allowed to carry weapons

So doctors are the LAST ones allowed weapons?

Or women doctors can have rifles now?

Or docs are the only ones allowed to carry concealed? (considering this is Iraq, the only concealed weapon I'd want is a short-barreled shotgun. Or Krinkov.)

 

[Al Thompson]

Uh Bobbarker, may have been true, but not now.

 

[ServiceSoon]

Because only docters have a right to self defense?

 

[Zoogster]

In some provinces, they are allowed to have an RPG

Uh Bobbarker, may have been true, but not now.

Yeah the rules of engagement pretty much allow lethal force to be used on those seen when an RPG.
You can find videos of men spotted from the air with such weapons and simply being seen with such weapons from miles away results in a green light to kill them.

What the Iraqi people want or would allow and what the US occupation policy allows can be different. The US forces in turn train the Iraqi security/police on what they should tolerate. So US policy becomes domestic policy.
Being spotted with an RPG means you pose a threat, and become a valid target.

Even the most advanced military forces on earth fear the lowly RPG-7. A single man can take out multiple soldiers in full body armor designed to defeat .308 rifle rounds with one. They can be setup to explode and launched into the air at helicopters, doing serious damage from even near misses. They can be setup to explode early and launched over targets, raining shrapnel down on the area without explosing the shooter. A humvee or other vehicles in a convoy can be destroyed with one.
The rockets are cheap, and some even make thier own. It is a devestating low tech weapon.

The RPG is a threat to infantry, many land and some air vehicles, and other soft targets. Cheap and capable, a deadly combination in an insurgent weapon.

The military won't put up with things they fear. They don't fear an AK, body armor with plates defeat it and they can outgun most Iraqis in a firefight, and fix thier position and call in support if needed. The RPG is a whole different story. By the time you know one has been fired at you it can be too late, and the individuals that fired them retreating into the distance.
Roadside bombs, other booby traps, RPGs, mortars, and carbombs are the staples of effective and cheap tools against a modern formidable force.
So anyone seen with or preparing any of them will be killed.

 

[Good Shot Group]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=363065
Failed Iraqi gun control discussed here.